Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1887-12-15
THE GERMS OF DISEASE
LURKING IN THE CUTTERS AND
RUTS OF CITY STREETS.
;

Miasm Engendered by the SUMS Rays.
Poison Breathed by the Children of
the Poor-What a Physician Says of
Dirty Streets.
"If one member is sick" writes st. Paul,
''the whole body Suffereth." AristOcratic and
high toned quarters cannot insure themselves
from the fatal consequences attending an en-
vironment of filth and squalOr, of otfal and
garbage Luxuriously appointed pariors,
plate glass windows and long prayers will not
bring an immunity to typhoid pneumonia,
diphtheria, cerebro-spinal meningitis, typhuS
fever, Asatic cholera or the Russian plague.
When reeking cesspoolS surround one on
every side it is vain thing for even the
rigiily righteous to exclaim, ''Soul, take
thine ease" Ten righteous men might have
saved SOdc from the fire and birthstone
visitation, b..C two clean avenues and a few
well swept streets will not secure like i'm
munty from the miasm engendered by the
suns rays from the all pervading filth. The
germs of disease lurk in every gutter, hide IN
every street hidden. Even when the tons OF
garbage is removed the ruts and joints of the
pavement will be saturated with putrescent
organic mire, which will yield constant
supply of nOXiOus miasma.
In hot and dry weather these nauseating
deposits pass into the atmosphere in the form
of deadly vapors and lethal organisms, which
not only poison our lungs but sow the seeds
of disease and death. Any one who will care
fully observe the ground when She pavement
is removed for any purpose will perceive
black layer of earth saturated with sulphur
cited hydrogen, which bears eloquent witness
to the infection of the sub-soil by the soakage
of these regularly recurring winter cOntaml-
nations.
vAPORs FROM THE CUTTERS.
Vapors, still more noxious, of course, than
those from the road;bed, rise from the gut
ters the sub-soil of which is impregnated
with the most deadly organic poison. And
over these cutters thousands of the children
of the poor play during the summer and in
hale the miasm into their tender lungs. The
consequences are recorded in every years
mortality report. Eighty per cent. of the
infant population of New York city live in
tenement houses. and according to the report
of the state board of charities, one-half of
them do not survive their second birthday.
An elderly medical gentleman, in conver-
sation with the writer recently, remarked.
"Dphtheria, typhoid pneumonia and typhus
fever are diseases of comparatively recent
development in New York. They are the
direct result of dirty streets and abounding
filth. When began practice in New York,
after attending the hospitals in Paris and
London, ten years passed-aye, more than
ten years-without my seeing case of fever.
Except the imported ship fever there were no
fever cases of any kind in this then healthy
city. One day DR.. Griscom astonished the
profession by inviting them to call and see
four cases of this character in the New York
hospital, on Broadway, then under his super
intendence. Today these are the principal
diseases and the most fatal diseases the prac-
ticing phys clan has to combat "-B 7. Valen-
tine in Herald of Health.